Written in the Stars
by Narya's Bane
Summary: After the events of the Bellmaker, Mariel and Dandin start out again. But Redwall is close to Dandin's heart, and he is called back in spite of his feelings for the friend he has traveled with for so long. spoilers for Bellmaker, and a little bit of l
1. Written in the Stars

This is a test for how this genre might work, so please be kind- but also review. Review well, if possible, but at least review. I am quite interested in what people think of this attempt.  
  
This is technically song-fic, involving Mariel and Dandin as they start on their second adventure (set after the Bellmaker). Dandin feels the call to go home, and cannot bear it. IF I get at least two reviews, I will add on the second part that explains what happens next. If I don't get two reviews, I will not add it.  
  
So there. *sticks tongue out, adolescent style*  
  
Oh yeah, and as always, I don't own Redwall or its characters, or the Elton John song. . .  
  
Yet. I am a director after all, and I have BIG plans for Redwall if I can get permission to do anything with it in about- say, ten or twenty years. We'll see what happens there.  
  
Anyway, read. *jedi mind trick*  
  
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  
  
Mariel had been expecting her dearest friend and companion to come up to her ever since they exited Mossflower this time. He'd seemed so troubled, looking back as if he left his duty behind him. And in his eyes was doubt. Now he slowed down to where she walked, and the two of them watched the slowing pace of their newest adventurer friend. Bowly had started out so gung-ho and excited, yet was beginning to slow realizing how travel felt on the footpaws. Yet Mariel knew that was not why Dandin felt the need to walk beside her.  
  
There could be little denying that what they shared was beyond normal friendship. Mariel had known, ever since she'd seen his sure face waiting for her on the bend out of Redwall as she went off on a hopeless search, that she felt differently about him. It was not the simple love of a companion, or the gentle toying of camaraderie. They were closer than friends- they were playful lovers at times, when possible; that part of their relationship could not exist in Redwall, so they left.  
  
Mariel knew, in her heart, she loved Dandin. And now, he was there, beside her, intent on breaking her heart. . .  
  
"My duty is elsewhere," he whispered into her ear.  
  
"I know," was the mournful answer. "If you go back, we may never see each other."  
  
"Yet Redwall is my home and there I belong. Not with you, though I long to join you yet again."  
  
Mariel couldn't say she understood, but she knew some things were more important than the love they shared. Home, and family, for two. And if Dandin was called home she would not stand in his way.  
  
// I am here to tell you we can never meet again.  
  
Simple really, isn't it? A word or two and then-  
  
A lifetime of not knowing where or how or why, or when  
  
You think of me or speak of me or wonder what befell  
  
The someone you once loved so long ago so well. \\  
  
"I don't want you to go," Mariel sighed softly, yet suddenly, when they stopped along the road for the first time.  
  
"I know," was Dandin's reluctant response. "But the abbey is my home, and returning made me realize how much I belong there."  
  
"Dandin? You do know how much I love you, don't you? And if you go- well, I will never feel differently."  
  
"You could return with me. . ."  
  
"We would be, what, then? Illegal lovers, going behind their backs? They think what we have is impossible, Dandin! Either two people will get married and have children while protecting the abbey, or they will join the ranks of the brothers and sisters. I refuse to do either."  
  
"Then," he said, standing, "I have to go. Tell Bowly for me?"  
  
Mariel stifled her tears, nodding.  
  
Was this a trick being played on her? Everything was going wrong!  
  
As Dandin walked off, Mariel looked to the cleared path and saw through the trees as the sun started to slowly dip behind the visible line. A single star had become visible, and Mariel wished on it with all her heart, asking the dusk sky why that which she shared with Dandin was wrong- and why he was being summoned from her.  
  
//Never wonder what I'll feel as living shuffles by!  
  
You don't have to ask me and I need not reply;  
  
Every moment of my life from now until I die  
  
I will think or dream of you and fail to understand  
  
How a perfect love can be confounded out of hand  
  
Is it written in the stars?  
  
Are we paying for some crime?  
  
Is that all that we are good for:  
  
Just a stretch of mortal time?  
  
Is this God's experiment,  
  
In which we have no say:  
  
In which we're given paradise,  
  
But only for a day!\\  
  
Dandin walked away with tears in his eyes. Yes, he knew he loved Mariel, and his heart cried out to go back to her. But when he'd left with her, and gone away, his heart had cried just as much to return to the abbey. In his mind, he was still a creature of Mossflower. Nothing would change it. It was unable to be changed. No way to turn back, and no will to do so. He was going home, leaving the mousemaid he loved behind forever.  
  
He spoke to the emptiness of the woods, telling it what he could not tell her.  
  
"I love you, Mariel."  
  
//Nothing can be altered; there is nothing to decide.  
  
No escape, no change of heart, nor anyplace to hide.\\  
  
Mariel looked over at Bowly, smiling at the cheeky young thing as he fell into a light sleep. When it reached total darkness she would awaken the young hedgehog so they could continue on their journey. Until then, she was willing to take a form of ease which was troubled and unsure.  
  
Mariel knew she could not go back to Redwall for life. She had too much of a wanderer's heart, too much spirit. She loved Dandin- but she couldn't be a good, subservient wife for him. No, this was how it had to be: forever parted, in spite of their feelings.  
  
Maybe it would have been better if they'd never met. She wouldn't be feeling ripped apart like this! If the bell hadn't been made; if her father, Joseph, hadn't stayed behind in Redwall; if Dandin had been raised by woodlanders instead of in the abbey. . .  
  
No. Mariel had experienced that before, yet she knew even now that was despair and darkness talking, and that those feelings would disappear as surely as Dandin had.  
  
"I'll miss you," she sighed, snuggling in. Now that she thought about it, a moment's sleep might be a good idea.  
  
//You are all I'll ever want, but this I am denied  
  
Sometimes in my darkest thoughts, I wish I'd never learned  
  
What it is to be in love and have that love returned.\\  
  
Mariel and Dandin looked up, seeing the same stars come into the sky. Dandin kept walking though, sure in his decision; he might feel love for Mariel, but duty called. And in the end, duty had to come before his emotions. Redwall wouldn't accept them, because the love they shared was not normal. It was based first on mutual attraction, but then friendship and respect. Yet Mariel realized that there was a connection between her and Dandin that nothing could break; she'd felt it many a time, when there was trouble and when they were joking around most carelessly and accidentally flirting.  
  
They would meet again, somehow.  
  
It was not over that day.  
  
//Is it written in the stars?  
  
Are we paying for some crime?  
  
Is that all that we are good for:  
  
Just a stretch of mortal time?  
  
Is this God's experiment  
  
In which we have no say?  
  
In which we're given paradise  
  
Only for a day.\\  
  
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  
  
Unlikely? Possibly. But it ought to be something a little different, right?  
  
Just so I don't get yelled at: I LOVE Mariel, and always thought that she and Dandin had a stronger relationship than was written. I always felt a strong love between the two as they wandered- after everything they went through together, it would be unlikely in my mind if they hadn't fallen for each other completely! So- how bad was it?  
  
*points to box, hits it, gives adder's eyes to get a review* 


	2. The One

Part Two of Written in the Stars- The One  
  
First off, thank you all for the review so far. I was so over-whelmed I wrote this up quick as I could, hoping to appease. If it isn't what you wanted, just review and say so, and I'll change it around a bit until it's right.  
  
Yadda yadda, still own nothing, yadda yadda.  
  
Except for Mariel, who is currently sitting on my lap.  
  
*pets Mariel*  
  
Good girl.  
  
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  
  
Dandin was walking along the woodland paths as it started to grow dark, and he knew in his heart he was starting to make some sort of mistake. It wasn't until the last rays of the sun began to drop, bursting in the glory of reds and violets, that he allowed that he would never make it back tonight and dropped to his knees slightly outside the path and wondered if he was doing the right thing. But sleep overtook him quickly. . .  
  
A figure walked up to him in his dream, the same mouse he'd seen and heard before. This time he was remaining silent, and shaking his head. That meant Dandin was allowed to speak first.  
  
"Martin the Warrior, I presume?"  
  
"You guess wrong," was the only answer. "Though that is expected. Nobody really ever expects to meet me."  
  
It was something familiar in the voice that answered who this was. "Gonff?"  
  
"Good thought, mate; very good. Runs in the family."  
  
"Why are you here?"  
  
"To stop you from making a hasty decision, if it isn't in you."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Do you remember," Gonff asked while ignoring the question, "when you first met Mariel?"  
  
"Of course," Dandin replied. Oh yes, he did; she'd been so sure of herself, and so spirited. Temper barely contained, as if she was some creature born of storm and sea. Rage barely contained behind those eye, rope waiting. . .  
  
It hadn't taken long for Dandin to recognize himself in her expression, and to realize how much he cared. He'd known it was love back then, and through his feelings for her he'd come to terms with what Mother Mellus called truth. Dandin had realized when he first followed her that things were going to be difficult, because it wasn't in his head; it had been obviously real. And he'd known when he first laid eyes on her that he'd follow her anywhere.  
  
She'd been everything he was looking for: a fellow restless spirit, the bringer of quests. And he'd known why he had trouble at home: he was meant for something else.  
  
He was MEANT for wandering life.  
  
"I remember," Dandin assured his family spirit- the mouse thief. "I could never forget."  
  
//I saw you dancing out the ocean,  
  
Running fast along the sand:  
  
A spirit born of earth and water  
  
Fire flying from your hands!  
  
In the instant that you love someone-  
  
In the second that the hammer hits-  
  
Reality runs up your spine  
  
And the pieces finally fit;  
  
And all I ever needed was the one,  
  
Like freedom fields where wild horses run.\\  
  
Mariel hadn't awoken, even though the night was surely started. Somehow, she could visualize all her surroundings: bitter dark, and gentle clouds rolling across the stars. Coming towards her was the figure of a mouse, one who held himself like a true warrior. She recognized him from many dreams, and now she called him by name.  
  
"Martin the Warrior. It is an honor."  
  
"It is, Mariel of the Gullwhacker."  
  
"Why do you come to me, Martin?"  
  
"I come to remind you what you once had, my little Mariel. So that, should it present itself again, you can embrace it. Do you remember what it was like?"  
  
What it was like. . .  
  
Yes, Mariel remembered. It was brilliant blazes meeting, and taking away the shadows. It was fulfillment. It was knowing you always had a home.  
  
"I remember."  
  
"I will keep you company a while, but you must awaken when I go," Martin instructed her. She felt calm with him there, and readily she pledged to obey.  
  
//When stars collide, like you and I,  
  
No shadows block the sun.  
  
You're all I've ever needed;  
  
Baby you're the one.\\  
  
"I don't want you to get lost from your true path," Gonff told Dandin. "After all, if you feel half of what I felt for Columbine. . ."  
  
"It is so different for us, though; Redwall would call it sinful."  
  
"In my day," Gonff replied, "so was what I wanted from Columbine. Yet we still managed when away."  
  
"What if she'd called you away from Mossflower?"  
  
"Then I would have gleefully followed her, mate. Sometimes we must follow our hearts. Think about it!"  
  
Dandin watched as Gonff went along his merry way, singing a love song as he traveled from sight. Then he set to remembering so many nights with Mariel- all too many to count. Often, they'd had chances to act on their love. After all, they were alone much of the time while they wandered! But it never mattered. Love mattered, not actions! So long as the emotion stood, that was enough?  
  
And then Dandin realized: being together was enough, but apart there was uselessness. He could return to Redwall, since his mind wandered there, but always he would feel he'd betrayed something special. The woman he loved.  
  
Dandin remembered when he felt alone in Redwall, as if he didn't quite belong. Mariel alone, with her tattered appearance and gruff form of grace, had changed him. He'd seen her beautiful, and he'd seen her downtrodden, and either way he loved what she stood for. They'd both been, in many ways, alone and unreachable.  
  
Then they'd reached each other.  
  
Dandin knew Gonff was right: he had to go back to her, and confess. And in doing so it would repeat the action- it was being saved all over again.  
  
//There are caravans we follow,  
  
Drunken nights in dark hotels,  
  
When chances breathe between the silence:  
  
Where sex and love no longer gel.  
  
For each man in his time is Cain,  
  
Until he walks along the beach  
  
And sees his future in the water  
  
A long lost heart within his reach\\  
  
"Mariel, you have to get up now."  
  
Mariel's eyes popped open as she heard Martin command her. She sat up, looking at the now darkened sky, and smiled; it was time to move on. Lazily, she picked up an acorn and tossed it at Bowly.  
  
"You young rotter, time to get up! Move in nightdark, I always say, that'll keep your paws cool."  
  
The young one yawned and begged, "Do we have to?"  
  
"We do. Come on."  
  
He stood, shook out his quills, and then asked, "Where's sir Dandy?"  
  
Mariel paused a moment, unsure how to answer without crying. But then she didn't have to.  
  
"I'm right here, you rip! Come on; we'll make the sea by noon tomorrow if we keep up."  
  
They grabbed packs and started out, Dandin immediately coming besides Mariel and setting an arm around her shoulders.  
  
"I need to tell you something, Mariel."  
  
"Yes, Dandin?"  
  
"I- I guess- what I mean is. . . I think I might. . ."  
  
Mariel stopped him with a disarming smile and patted his back. "I love you too, Dandin," she whispered in his ear, running ahead again. She passed Bowly and skipped a bit.  
  
Things were definitely feeling good.  
  
// And all I ever needed was the one,  
  
Like freedom fields where wild horses run.  
  
When stars collide, like you and I,  
  
No shadows block the sun.  
  
You're all I've ever needed;  
  
Baby you're the one.\\ 


End file.
